Peerless Scheffler conquers Portrush to claim a first Claret Jug

Irish Examiner

20 hours ago

Scottie Scheffler started the final round of this Open Championship four shots in front and closed it out four in front. Not one of the chasing pack managed to get any closer than that as the American claimed the Claret Jug for the first time with a steady 68.
This was golf as procession not drama.
'What's the point?' Scheffler had asked rhetorically prior to this tournament as he tried to explain how his love for golf was a distant second to his love for family. What's the point? The field of 155 other players must be saying the same.
Scheffler wasn't perfect. He isn't that good, but the best player in the world has an uncanny ability to limit damage and rebound from it. Add in the fact that he was the best putter in Antrim this week and he was always going to be hard to beat.
All the more remarkable then that he was asked about a slump last Tuesday. Some slump. That's two majors he's landed now in 2025, two other tournament wins, 12 more top tens. His worst effort this year? A tie for 25th at the WM Phoenix Open in February.
Hopes of a dramatic chase and possible showdown here were never rooted in reality.
The calm and dry conditions were perfect for the leader to just keep doing what he was doing. The onus was on everyone else to go crazy and threaten something along the lines of a course record 63. People did go low, but not nearly that low.
None of Scheffler's nearest challengers were better than one-under for the day through his own first hour on the course. The best rounds were being put together then by Bryson DeChambeau, Shane Lowry and Rickie Fowler who started so much further down the ladder.
Scheffler had started the day with that four-shot buffer on Haotong Li, five on Matt Fitzpatrick and six on Rory McIlroy. It needed someone, preferably McIlroy, to catch fire and put some pressure on a man who plays with all the emotion of an automaton.
McIlroy had threatened out the gate on Saturday with three birdies in his first four holes but couldn't do it again. He had to settle for a two-under 69 that left him on ten-under alongside last year's champion Xander Schauffele and Robert MacIntyre.
Seven behind the winner.
It was Scheffler who turned the screw from the off with a superb approach to the first green to within two feet. The putt for birdie was drained and there were two more shots picked up inside the first five holes. Now he was eight in front.
It felt even then like a case of goodnight Irene.
There was one wobble. The American needed putts of 16- and 15-feet to save pars on the 6th and 7th and then came the glimpse of mortality when he couldn't escape first time from a fairway bunker on the 8th and carded a double bogey.
With Chris Gotterup, winner of last week's Genesis Scottish Open, reaching 11-under at that point the gap was now down to four. It was a fleeting flurry of excitement on a day when none of the chasing pack could maintain momentum.
McIlroy's bid had its fits and starts but hit the bricks on the 10th when he sent a flyer from rough past the green, needed two chips to find the putting surface and couldn't land the bogey. Two shots gone, miles adrift.
Others were playing their own games of snakes and ladders.
Gotterup slipped back to minus-10 then made it to 12. Four behind again. Li got to 11, regressed to 10 and returned to eleven all in the space of three holes midway through the round. Harris English carded eagle on 13 but only after a bogey before it.
He stayed the course more than anyone with a 66 to finish 13-under and on his own in second. No-one was moving at enough speed. Li managing a disappointing 70 and Fitzpatrick needing a strong finish to make a 69.
And that back nine was eminently gettable. Corey Conners was five-under for it on the day. Lee Westwood had shot 29 for it on Saturday, just like Ryan Fox had on the same course six years before.
That's a fourth major for Scheffler now, two Masters, a US PGA and this. All in the space of four years. He already has four top-tens at the US Open in just five attempts and a career grand slam will be on the line when he tees off at Shinnecock Hills next June.
This is a man playing on a plateau above the rest right now. McIlroy included.